Earnhardt powered into the lead while Keselowski was trying to get a piece of trash off his car's grille.

Keselowski had dominated most of the race and was leading when his car began to overheat. He pulled behind the lapped car of Danica Patrick with five laps to go to try to get the trash to blow away. But when he did, he lost his momentum and Earnhardt blew past him.

Keselowski closed on Earnhardt's bumper twice in the final four laps, but could not get back around him.

"That’s unfortunate for him," Earnhardt said. "He had me beat. I couldn’t get to him. It’s just hard to pass here. But I have lost some in some strange ways so it feels good to win one like that."

The win was Earnhardt's second of the season — he won the season-opening Daytona 500 — and marked the first time that he has won multiple races in one season since 2004. He became the fourth driver this year to win two races to secure a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Keselowski finished second followed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Jimmie Johnson. Johnson, who was trying to win his third consecutive Sprint Cup race, damaged his car when he hit Marcos Ambrose on pit road but rallied to finish sixth.

Keselowski, who finished second for the second consecutive week, said he had no choice but to try to get the trash off the grille.

“We were real hot," he said. "We were real fast. I just got a big piece of debris on the grille and had to do something or it would have blown up. I tried to make a move to get behind the 10 [Patrick] and use the air to pull the debris off and when she went into the corner she got loose and I just chased her up the track and lost too much momentum.

“I should have just passed her but I had to do some kind of move. The car wasn’t going to make it; it was already starting to blow up and it was all I could do. Dale made an excellent move to take advantage of it. Sometimes that’s just how racing goes."

Earnhardt also had debris on the front of his car and said it was starting to run hot too. But he wasn't about to let Keselowski use his car to dislodge the debris, which might have helped him get back around Junior.

"He knew I wasn’t going to do that. I’ve got to try to win the race," he said. "We had a little (high) temperature on our car at the end, too.

"Brad definitely had the better car. I’m definitely owning up to that, but we won the race and we’re definitely going to enjoy it. It goes in the books and helps us toward the Chase."

Earnhardt is in the midst of his best season since 2004, when he won a career-high six races, and his best since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. He climbed two spots to third in points with two wins, seven top-five and nine top-10 finishes.

“We were there all day, running great," he said. "We had a fast car, we just couldn’t get the track position 'til the end. You’ve got to be there, and we were there. Somebody had a mistake and had a issue and we were there to capitalize."

The victory was his first at Pocono, where he had finished in the top five in the two previous races.

“We’ve been running real well here since they repaved it," said crew chief Steve Letarte, who has led Earnhardt to two wins in his final season with the No. 88 team. "We’ve had so many good cars but we have fallen short on strategy and broke a transmission one time. It feels good to finally win one.

"He drove a great race. Pit stops were great, strategy was great. It’s a tough place to win at. To come here and put it all together feels good."

Keselowski, meanwhile, was second-guessing himself after leading a race-high 95 laps.

“We should have just run it and seen if it would have blown up," he said. "I don’t think it would have made it, but it might have.”

Keselowski likely has a place in the Chase because of his victory at Las Vegas.

The leaders were in fuel-mileage mode when Patrick hit the wall on Lap 138. Just one lap after the ensuing restart, the biggest crash of the race erupted when Kyle Busch and Kasey Kahne made contact, sending Kahne’s car hard into the wall. Carl Edwards then slammed into the back of Kahne. Edwards teammate Greg Biffle also was involved.

Kahne was not happy with Busch after the accident.

"He just floored it and didn't care that there was someone out there,” Kahne told MRN. "That was just Kyle being Kyle. He was probably pissed off because his car was slow."

Tony Stewart was in position for his first win of the season until he was nabbed for speeding on pit road on Lap 117. Stewart had led 24 laps and looked to have the car to beat until his speeding penalty. He finished 13th.

“It was 100 percent driver error," Stewart said. "I gave my guys grief with a sixth-place finish last week; I thought we should have been in the top three. I threw it away this week.”

Stewart teammate Kevin Harvick also had trouble — again. Harvick was running second to Stewart when he had a flat tire on Lap 116 and had to pit under green. Harvick, who has been plagued by mistakes on pit road all season, saw a caution flag come out just one lap after he had to pit under green. He finished 14th.

Points leader Matt Kenseth also had a bad day. He ran into the back of Jamie McMurray early in the race, damaging his car and finishing 25th. Jeff Gordon, who finished eighth, regained the points lead and leads Kenseth by 16 points. Earnhardt is third, followed by Johnson and Keselowski.

Meanwhile, Earnhardt was gearing up for another celebration with his massive fan base.

“I don’t have much to do tomorrow so it’s going to be a long night," he said.